Hi all, I read this in an article
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Interview/J_Schwartz_CEO_Sun/articleshow...
[quote]
Free software (as in free beer) may come with a zero price, but may have its source code as closed.
[/quote = J Schwartz, CEO, Sun ]
Comments, suggestions, reactions all invited as usual ;)
On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 10:29 PM, shirish shirishag75@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all, I read this in an article
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Interview/J_Schwartz_CEO_Sun/articleshow...
[quote]
Free software (as in free beer) may come with a zero price, but may have its source code as closed.
[/quote = J Schwartz, CEO, Sun ]
Comments, suggestions, reactions all invited as usual ;)
I find nothing wrong in that myself, and see no FUD. It's indeed possible to make something available for download in binary form for free and to declare it to be free software. "Free download" --> "Free software" is the message that could be sent out.
Do you see any FUD in that quote ?
-- Sriram
What Jonathan said is half correct, just saying Free software doesnt mean that its Open Source. For example, the nVidia drivers are free software but not open sourced.
On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 5:31 AM, Sriram Narayanan sriramnrn@gmail.comwrote:
On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 10:29 PM, shirish shirishag75@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all, I read this in an article
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Interview/J_Schwartz_CEO_Sun/articleshow...
[quote]
Free software (as in free beer) may come with a zero price, but may have
its
source code as closed.
[/quote = J Schwartz, CEO, Sun ]
Comments, suggestions, reactions all invited as usual ;)
I find nothing wrong in that myself, and see no FUD. It's indeed possible to make something available for download in binary form for free and to declare it to be free software. "Free download" --> "Free software" is the message that could be sent out.
Do you see any FUD in that quote ?
-- Sriram _______________________________________________ FSUG-Bangalore mailing list FSUG-Bangalore@mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsug-bangalore
On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Zenwalker shailesh.zenwalk@gmail.com wrote:
What Jonathan said is half correct, just saying Free software doesnt mean that its Open Source. For example, the nVidia drivers are free software but not open sourced.
Out of the 18 or so definitions available for the word 'free', all of them except one refers to free as in freedom. And yet we think we need the support of 'open source' to support the meaning of 'free'.
James
On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 7:06 AM, James Mathew james@gnu.org.in wrote:
On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Zenwalker shailesh.zenwalk@gmail.com wrote:
What Jonathan said is half correct, just saying Free software doesnt mean that its Open Source. For example, the nVidia drivers are free software but not open sourced.
Out of the 18 or so definitions available for the word 'free', all of them except one refers to free as in freedom. And yet we think we need the support of 'open source' to support the meaning of 'free'.
Yet, in everyday usage of the term as a qualifier for an item/product there is hardly but one kind of usage that society at large is familiar with. * It is a free pen as against It is a free country
Usage 1 : free pen, free car, free book, free lunch,... Usage 2 : free men, free life,...
To which usage would a commoner (without exposure to any which way) fit "free software" into.
If it is a unfamiliar usage of the term, then getting the communication right will be a constant struggle ! Not everyone is interested in fighting the struggle of words, instead are happy to use the terms that do communicate the idea across and help spread the spirit.
-Shiv
On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Zenwalker shailesh.zenwalk@gmail.comwrote:
What Jonathan said is half correct, just saying Free software doesnt mean that its Open Source. For example, the nVidia drivers are free software but not open sourced.
Distributable, binary only programmes are better called as Freeware and they are not Free Software. We Indians can easily call Free Software as Swathanthra Software.. I think we may not go with the confusions of English, when our language has a pretty good solution for it :)
Quoting more sentences from the article makes us enable to see the whole picture " It's primarily because of free and open software that Internethttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Interview/J_Schwartz_CEO_Sun/articleshow/3504557.cms#has grown to this size. Sun's Java and Sun Solaris have played a key role in it. But free software may not necessarily be open source software. Free software (as in free beer) may come with a zero price, but may have its source code as closed. We are pushing for a world where all software is both free and open source. "
That as a whole may give a wrong impression and if read the wrong way, it may remove the total concept of Freedom from the word free in Free and Open Source Software! He could have been accurate by replacing "free software" with "freeware" . But he is refering to the famous slogan about Free Software -"Free Software is free as in free speech and not as in free beer" and so i dont think it came intentionally rather than becoming less accurate.
Moreover its like, There can be Open Source software which are not Free Software but i dont think the reverse exists.
Regards Shyam K
shirish shirishag75@gmail.com wrote:
[quote]
Free software (as in free beer) may come with a zero price, but may have its source code as closed.
[/quote = J Schwartz, CEO, Sun ]
Comments, suggestions, reactions all invited as usual ;)
I was wondering... tech journalism being what it is, you'd suspect that Jonathan Schwartz is very probably being misquoted. The CEO of Sun cannot completely clueless about free software movement, can he? Why should Sun try to spread FUD *and* seemingly try to make friends with that very community it's trying to taint? Besides, he was talking about free beer software. Brackets alleviate all sins. :p
Then I went ahead and actually read the interview and was mightily troubled by his answer to the very first question. Free software comes with a price tag of zero? Examples are HTML and Javascript? Free software may have its source code as closed? Just what the hell are we talking about here? Did one of these guys (Jonathan, or the interviewer) pull this stuff off their own hind? But look -- they're talking sense through the rest of this interview!
Perhaps we can debate this another way. Imagine I make a piece of binary blob available, without charge, and claim that it is free software. What prevents me from using that term? How is it my fault that "free" is ambigous in English? How is it my problem that the FSF and their kind have a certain definition of what is free software?
I've always wondered why a better term wasn't picked up from the very beginning so that this would not be such a source of trouble -- later on leading to things such as open source and confused journalists^W people educating the public about free software. I mean, I'm shaken a bit every time a manager or similar person in a suit or a person with an apple laptop pontificates about open source... whereas what they refer to actually belong to us smelly unwashed people.
I would argue that every time you've to explain what exactly is "our" definition of free software, that is a kind of fail. That is indeed unfortunate, and that version of reality do suck. Though fortunately Indian languages have a distinction between "gratis" and "libre"...
We're just grumpy that ET didn't interview RMS, aren't we. :)
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James Mathew -
S h i v -
Sajith T S -
shirish -
Sriram Narayanan -
Zenwalker -
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